Next course: Fitchburg diner owner pursues chef's dream as eatery nears closing

FITCHBURG -- No matter from which direction one drives into Moran Square, the red of the eponymous diner at its center forcefully dictates one’s attention toward its yellow letters that in vintage font have spelled “Moran Sq. Diner” since 1939.

The diner recalls a different time, anchoring the historic sentiment of the square that is otherwise made complete by its red-bricked buildings across the street or, in other cases, the buildings now long gone that exist only in the nostalgia of Fitchburg’s residents.

The few, quick steps into Worcester Lunch Car and Carriage Co. #765 are halted by a door that sticks at the threshold, most likely made heavy at the hinges as the whole car has aged since its construction in 1939.

A shadow from behind the glass windows hovers over to the other side the door, gives the necessary thrust to crack the door open, and with a quick turn reassumes the duties behind the counter to pick up where work was left off, hinting the guest to a shy welcome.

It’s half an hour after the noon closing time, and Ember Willoughby is still at the diner, either wiping the booths clean, washing dishes or prepping for the following day.

For the past two years, the 35-year-old has been behind the counter of the historic diner, picking up where previous owners Chris and Mary Gianetti left off, continuing the tradition of the Moran Square Diner that started with Mitchell J. Vitelli, the original owner, more than eight decades ago.

Willoughby’s lifelong ambition to be a chef is the reason why they leased the Moran Square Diner in 2020 to run the business, but also the reason why they’re closing it at the end of the month.

Opting for chef's cuisine

Torn between perfecting the artistic sense of cooking that earns one the title of chef, and the tremendous undertaking to run their own establishment that in their case is limited to a classic American diner, for Willoughby the decision came down to choosing the former.

Come January, Willoughby will be a sous chef at Gibbet Hill Grill in Groton, a farm-to-table restaurant.

“I've always loved cooking,” said Willoughby. “People have certain expectations of diners that they need to be set in a certain decade, or it needs to be food for the working man, or it needs to be extremely inexpensive with just the cheapest-quality ingredients.

“I kind of scratched the itch of owning my own place, but I miss being in fine dining restaurants that are more on the cutting edge of doing more interesting things with food.”

At the Moran Square Diner, Willoughby is a chef, a waiter, a busperson, a dishwasher and a businessperson, with family help only coming weekends with duties needing the least skill.

However, heavy work doesn’t bother the Fitchburg native, who first started as a dishwasher at 17 at The Highlands Nursing Home in Fitchburg, much like in the style of chefs they look up to.

That work is what Willoughby says a good chef needs to run a thriving restaurant.

For them, the job was a steppingstone to working as a line cook at pizza joints and restaurants in the area, such as the Beat Hotel at Harvard Square (now known as The Beat Brew Hall).

“By doing everything, it gives you a better respect for everyone else in the restaurant,” said Willoughby. “Some of the best chefs I've talked to have started as dishwashers because it's the most important role in the restaurant.

“They work the hardest.”

The names of world-famous chef Anthony Bourdain and Matthew Kenah, Willoughby’s mentor from their years as a fine dining line cook in early 2010s at Woods Hill Table in West Concord, are only some of the names engraved on inches-long metallic plaques under the front bar.

Willoughby credits Kenah with the beginning of their passion for fine dining.

“I learned about whole animal butchery, pasta making, milling our own flour, soaking grains and really trying to be as true farm-to-table as possible,” said Willoughby. “(Kenah) taught me almost everything I know about cooking, and also managing people and how to have people successfully produce for you in an environment that people want to be in.”

Laid off at the height of the pandemic, Willoughby teamed up with their ex-wife, Brittany, to open their own establishment.

Adding personal touch to diner

Connecting with Glenn Fossa, the owner of the diner at Moran Square, which had been sitting empty since the previous owners Chris and Mary Gianetti retired after almost 25 years of ownership in 2018, the Willoughbys dug into the restaurant, adding their own touch to the diner while preserving its authenticity.

With financial help also coming from donors, the Willoughbys equipped the kitchen with new merchandise, and carved out an outdoor area in front of the diner with a grant from local foundation ReImagine North of Main.

The names of the donors and previous owners are placed on plaques on the front side of the bar and the diner’s five booths.

After months of “scrubbing all the grease out” and rearranging the kitchen to be in the back of the diner and adding a fresh coat of paint to the ceiling among other changes, the Willoughbys opened the doors to the diner in October 2021.

“I wanted to create the restaurant that I wanted to eat at,” said Willoughby. “It was to take on the classic diner dishes and elevate them with better ingredients, better preparation, making everything in-house as much as possible, making my own corned beef, using really good bacon, ham, sausage, great dairy, local eggs.”

When asked to describe their take on diner food, Willoughby did so in the best way they know — by cooking.

They prepared what they called Baby Thyme Potatoes, a more elegant take on home fries, using baby potatoes which they boil, deep-fry them in sunflower oil and season with kosher salt and thyme.

While the classic home fries are still on the menu, Willoughby said patrons have enjoyed the thyme-seasoned potatoes as a side to the classic Moran Square breakfast with two eggs, meat and toast.

“I try to be simplistic in my plating style here,” said Willoughby, “implementing color wherever possible, but just try to make the food look good, appetizing.

“People eat with their eyes first.”

Aside from the work that Willoughby puts into their culinary career, they also have a background in music, earning a degree in music education from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2010.

Artistic, political take

That is evident in the diner, where Willoughby intertwined the aesthetics and semantics of the diner’s interior with a deep artistic and often also political take.

They decorated the walls with vinyl records of artists across all genres, such as indie folk band Bon Iver and rapper Mac Miller among others, while atop the frame of the front door, they have placed plastic figurines of former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Senior Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Outside the diner, Willoughby unfurls every day a Pride flag, a symbol of LGBT pride and LGBT social movements, which has “Everyone is welcome here” written on it.

Willoughby said great support comes from the queer community, with whom they identify since assuming they/them pronouns earlier this year and changing their first name from Adam to Ember.

“We're here to spread love and do it through food and community,” said Willoughby. “This has made me feel more comfortable in my own skin and being my authentic self and understanding myself better.”

Willoughby took complete ownership of the business in August, after separating from their former wife, who was the owner since the beginning.

However, the building itself is still the property of Fossa, who said he’s looking to find someone else to run the diner.

He hinted at already being in talks with possible options who would look to reopen the diner as early as end of January.

A career police officer in Fitchburg for 32 years, Fossa was often a customer of the diner since childhood. Willoughby said Fossa continues to stop by for breakfast as the closing date approaches.

“I was open to (Willoughby’s) passion, who embarked on a really nice trip in 2021,” said Fossa. “I'm excited for whatever will come next.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Owner Ember Willoughby to close Moran Square Diner in Fitchburg